Video Archives of the Syrian Revolution: A Media Experiment

Abstract

This article builds on ongoing debates in archival theory that point both to the democratic potential of digitization and to its dangers (mass deletion, de-contexualization, algorithmic bias). It considers what happens when visual documents that were once made to mobilize a counterpublic are repurposed as the basis for reflections on memory and loss for a generation of Syrian revolutionaries, who remain exiled from their homeland with little hope of return. Rami Farah’s documentary film, Our Memory Belongs to Us is analyzed as part of a wider effort to counter forms of erasure that now encompass both physical and digital sites.